George W. Bush’s Administration Was ‘Far Worse’ Than Donald Trump’s, Journalist Says

As media outlets call the 2020 presidential election for Democrat Joe Biden, and Donald Trump might be on his way out of the White House, journalist Glenn Greenwald released a piece on Substack that spotlighted the atrocities of the George W. Bush administration.

“There is nothing done by the Trump administration that can be rationally characterized as a radical aberration, some dramatic break, from U.S. tradition,” he argued.

“Quite the contrary: none of Trump’s actions and policies are in some new universe of savagery, lawlessness, or radicalism when compared to those who preceded him in power.”

The journalist, a former attorney, noted that Bush and his vice president, Dick Cheney, violated congressional statutes in order to free themselves to detain, kill, and spy on anyone they wanted so long as it was deemed part of the War of Terror. Like Barack Obama’s administration afterward, the writer noted that Bush expanded power beyond detaining American citizens with no legal constraints to spying on them and targeting them for assassination.

The writer also highlighted the Bush administration’s torture program at the infamous prison located at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, which operated outside American law. Greenwald pointed out that dozens of people are still held at the location almost 20 years after it was established.

The former Intercept journalist also claimed that Trump’s campaign was able to commit many of its atrocities due to the actions of his predecessors.

“Indeed, Trump was able to campaign on, and then implement, escalated bombing campaigns that killed large numbers of civilians because the bipartisan framework had been laid over the prior two presidencies that empowered that.”

In a previous piece for The Intercept, Greenwald outlined this escalation, which involved the slaughter of large numbers of innocent civilians as collateral for targeting terrorists. He pointed in particular to the U.S. airstrikes that killed as many as 200 Iraqi civilians in Mosul, Iraq. Such civilian deaths in Iraq and Syria reportedly increased significantly during the first two months of the Trump administration.

According to the writer, the argument that Trump’s “evils” are incomparable allow contributors to the Bush administration’s atrocities, such as David Frum and Bill Kristol, to be wiped clean of responsibility for their actions. He also argued that it allows those figures to benefit from pushing the narrative that Trump has run a more damaging presidency.

The resuscitation of Bush’s image hasn’t sat well with many. As The Inquisitr reported, daytime talk show host Ellen DeGeneres faced criticism for her friendship with the former president. Her decision was defended by some, including former presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, an anti-war advocate.